160 THE CORMORANT. 
but for one moment, how many innocent birds their 
shot destroys; how many fall disabled on the wave, 
there to linger for hours, perhaps for days, in torture 
and in anguish; did they but consider how many 
helpless young ones will never see again their parents 
coming to the rock with food ; they would, methinks, 
adopt some other plan to try their skill, or cheat 
the lingering hour. 
NOTES OF A VISIT TO THE HAUNTS OF THE 
CORMORANT, AND FACTS ON ITS HABITS. 
Tue fabulous story concerning the cormorant made 
a great impression upon me in early youth; and I 
well remember with what avidity I first read his true 
history in the pages of Buffon. 
The old fable tells us that the cormorant was once 
a wool-merchant. He entered into partnership 
with the bramble and the bat, and they freighted a 
large vessel with wool. She struck on some rocks, 
and went to the bottom. This loss caused the firm 
to become bankrupt. Since that disaster, the bat 
sculks in his hiding-hole until twilight, in order that 
he may avoid his creditors: the bramble seizes hold 
of every passing sheep, to make up his loss by 
retaining part of its wool; while the cormorant is 
for ever diving into the waters of the deep, in hopes 
of discovering whereabouts his foundered vessel 
lies. So far for the fable, which will always bring 
